EsatBT Young Scientist 2005

snappieT

Hey,
I've just been accepted in and thought "Hmm, i wonder who else will be there"

If you are in this year, tell us about your project for a while!

See ya there.

ecksor

Tell us about your project for a while!

snappieT

Righto,
I'm in 6th year now, and had always wanted to do the competition, tried in 2nd year but got lazy and ended up not entering (probably for the best - it involved hamsters!)

Anyhoo, my project [with 1 of my mates] is to look at the efficiency of the QWERTY keyboard. We've written a short program that will look at an online dictionary and tell us how many of each letter there is. That's my mates bit

The most used will be put on the 'home keys' areas. Certain characters (like the @ and € symbols) that are now highly used won't require complex shift/control/alt use. (I'm designing the new keyboard itself)

It's up to me then to program the keyboard to work with windows, so you can type more efficiently.

My old science (and now maths) teacher has volunteered 30 guinea pigs for us to test efficiency on. We'll also write a program to figure out the total distance travelled by the hands to type a random book on the QWERTY versus our own to show the percentage efficiency increase.



Wow, that was long winded, but it should be fun!

ecksor

Two things spring to mind. If the users are trained to use a qwerty keyboard or are even very familiar with a qwerty keyboard then that familiarty might distort any benefits that your arrangement might have. Also, the qwerty layout has its origins in typewriter days and I think it has something to do with keeping often used keys far apart because of the way that the actual metal letters that hit the drum are designed. There's another layout that's believed to be far more efficient afaik which is called the Dvorak keyboard layout. Some information here: http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/

Tellox

Im going in a group of 3.
We're doing a project on driver distraction.. basicly, the subject drives around in a driving simulator, once without any distractions,and a second time with distractions such as having to change radio stations, playing stupid knacker/dance music up full blast, talking on a mobile etc etc.. we mark them on how many times they break the rules of the road..

We've done it on loads of people so far..the results are quite interesting..We had one bloke rack up 39 penalty points while driving with distractions..

Anyway, looking forward to going..should be a laugh.

GuanYin

ecksor wrote:

Two things spring to mind. If the users are trained to use a qwerty keyboard or are even very familiar with a qwerty keyboard then that familiarty might distort any benefits that your arrangement might have. Also, the qwerty layout has its origins in typewriter days and I think it has something to do with keeping often used keys far apart because of the way that the actual metal letters that hit the drum are designed. There's another layout that's believed to be far more efficient afaik which is called the Dvorak keyboard layout. Some information here: http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/

Yup thats right, the qwerty configuration was actually designed to slow typists down as they found that in faster setups that the barrells in the typewriter were locking and catching with each other. In otherwords the technology at the time couldn't keep up with the typists speed.

snappieT

syke wrote:

Yup thats right, the qwerty configuration was actually designed to slow typists down as they found that in faster setups that the barrells in the typewriter were locking and catching with each other. In otherwords the technology at the time couldn't keep up with the typists speed.

I know about this, but the project is strictly theoretical. It is also designed to analyse the development and change of the English language since the 'QWERTY'

Also, the idea is that new kids use it solely, never seeing a QWERTY. The benefits wouldn't be seen in those familiar already familiar with thee QWERTY.

Keep the projects coming!

doh.ie

snapscan1212p wrote:

I know about this, but the project is strictly theoretical. It is also designed to analyse the development and change of the English language since the 'QWERTY'

Also, the idea is that new kids use it solely, never seeing a QWERTY. The benefits wouldn't be seen in those familiar already familiar with thee QWERTY.

Keep the projects coming!

Sounds like an interesting project. Good luck with it. I was in the YSE back when Aer Lingus were sponsors - you'll meet lots of great people and have a wonderful time. Above all, enjoy yourself.

You may have a hard job finding young people who *haven't* seen or used a QWERTY keyboard, though. I'm wondering how even the slightest knowledge of where the keys are will throw the results off a bit. But, that said, I've used a number of computer programs all which use the numbers keypad for different functions, and once trained up and with a bit of experience, have no problem interchanging and automatically remembering which keys do what.

So there is the potential for a new, better keyboard style to work. I'm a little surprised if a better layout (say, Dvorak's) was out there, that it hasn't already been phased into use.

snappieT

This post was meant to be more than just my project

Anybody else out there?

Sev

That's a good idea for a project. I typed a bit of dvorak myself for a time and got quite handy at it. I eventually got sick of that frustrated feeling of knowing that I could type oh so much faster if I just switched windows to qwerty and gave up, but I still have a fair few dvorak words per minute. I thought it was kind of like "encrypting" your keyboard. Anybody who sits at your pc is soon in a state of 'wtf'.

From personal experience, I find that words are much easier and quicker to type when the letters of alternate right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand etc.

Like typing 'antivirus' against typing 'restarted'. With 'antivirus', a finger on the left hand can be prepared to hit the next letter in the instant just after the finger on the right hand has hit its letter. But a word like 'restarted' is just a bit tedious and makes your right hand seem redundant

That could be an angle for you to explore.

snappieT

We have just finished the layout. See the attached picture.


Come see us at the exhibition and try out the keyboard - there's just over a month to go!

Hugh Hefner

I'll be there.

I don't have a project. I'm an exhibitioner. I'll be giving out free I.Q. tests from the Mensa booth. Pens too.

snappieT

Hugh Hefner wrote:

I'll be there.

I don't have a project. I'm an exhibitioner. I'll be giving out free I.Q. tests from the Mensa booth. Pens too.

I hate to admit to this, but last year, when I was just viewing the exhibition, I went around with mates and be collectively 'redeemed' over 500 pens!

Great fun - strongly advised (Except at the mensa booth of course)

Hugh Hefner

Is it just me or do girls out number guys like 3:1 at the Young Scientist? Not that I'm complaining.

snappieT

Not to me anyway.
I've heard that the disco afterwards on Saturday is easy-central (but remember, 80% of them will be underage!)

Hugh Hefner

No it's not. Not from expoerecne or anything it's just that I saw reletively few people making-out at the disco. But try your luck I guess.